The perfect balance of social networking for value in
your educational pursuit with your students and social networking for everything
else will be an equalizer we continue to look for throughout our careers. I believe that as a professional, we need to
try to find a way to keep the personal part of us on one side of the fence and our
professional part of us on the other side of the fence and teach our students
the proper etiquette for both, potentially using our own ventures as examples
for them. That isn’t to say that sometimes
they can’t overlap but teaching high school kids, I know I don’t need them
seeing every status update I have on Facebook or my beach vacation photos that
I loaded so my cousin in Texas can see my babies at the beach. In my Canton Professional Educators
Association handbook, they strongly discourage us in having a Facebook page
along with discouraging us to participate in social networking in the
mainstream sense. I can’t say I agree with
that approach. The ODE Communication and
Arts representative helps us network in our state with other CTE teachers and
she keeps us up to date on Ohio changes in education and array of lots of other
tidbits. She encourages us to
communicate via social network sites and in fact, last week, she shared a link
to a great article for us and asked one of my colleagues to post it on his
Facebook page since it has over 1100 friends for more to read it. The power of social networking is worth harnessing
and educating ourselves and others on how to properly use it in the given circumstances
and how to utilize that power rather than shy away from it.
Spector,
J. M., Merrill, M. D., Merrienboer, J. V., Driscoll, M. P. (2008). Handbook of research on educational
communications and technology. (3rd ed.). New York, NY:
Routledge Taylor & Francis Group.
Thorsen,
C. (2009). Techtactics: Technology for teachers.
(3rd ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson Education Inc.
Hello, J.Powers
ReplyDeleteI want to say very informative. I truly believe that the perfect balance of social is networking for value in your educational pursuit with your students and social networking for everything else. Though teachers using online tools are empowering students take part in their education, they may also expose them to inappropriate material, sexual predators, and bullying and harassment by peers. Teachers who are not careful with their use of the sites can fall into inappropriate relationships with students or publicize photos and information they believed were kept private. I truly believe that there should be guidelines, of how to and not, using social networking in the class room. However, it is very beneficial, but it can impact students in a negative way. Truly, times are changing and we must change with the times, as it relates to technology. Great Blog!
Blessings
Eric
It is always about finding that perfect balance and this topic is no different. We, as teachers, are held at a higher standard and as such should conduct ourselves in a professional, informative manner at all times with our students. Thanks for your feedback!
DeleteJacki